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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Lighter General Tso's Chicken

After several weeks of dessert posts (minus one indulgent Mario Batali pasta recipe) I was beginning to feel like we were getting a bit unhealthy around here. So, to combat that, I bring you: Veggies! And healthy food! Novel concept, no?

But, because I’m still me, and we don’t want to get too out of hand, first I have to indulge our sweet tooths (sweet teeth?) just a bit more to announce The Perfect Scoop cookbookgiveaway winner!

So, I’ve made this recipe several times. It seems that every time I was visiting the farmers market on the weekends, the quarts of snow peas were practically jumping off the tables into my bags, begging to be made into this delicious meal. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite weeknight meals. It’s relatively quick to pull together, especially if you’re clever and prep the foods the night prior. I wish I could remember to do this more often. It would make my life so much easier.

Anyway, something about this slightly spicy, slightly sweet sauce over crunchy snow peas just does me right in. And even better still, it’s “lighter”, as in healthier. As in go ahead and eat a cupcake, Laura, you know you want to! I like that.

In a large bowl stir 1 Tablespoon of the cornstarch with 1/2 cup of water until it is smooth. Stir in the ginger, garlic, brown sugar, soy sauce and red pepper flakes. Toss in the snow peas until well combined and set the bowl aside.

In a medium bowl whisk the egg whites with the remaining cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss the chicken in the egg white mixture to evenly coat.

Pour the vegetable oil into a large skillet and set over medium heat. When the oil is heated, using a slotted spoon gently remove some of the chicken from the egg white mixture and let the excess egg white drip off. Cook the chicken until lightly golden and cooked through, about 6 minutes, cooking in batches if needed. Remove the chicken from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.

Pour the snow pea mixture into the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the peas are tender and the sauce has thickened. Add the chicken back into the pan and toss with the snow peas. Serve with the rice.

7 comments:

I also posted a challenge for you on my blog! It's the very end of my latest post. themilkmanswife.wordpress.com. I wanted to wait until your giveaway ended to let you know!! Check it out if you'd like. :)

I wrote down a bunch of your recipes for the next few weeks and this one I made tonight. IT WAS SOO GOOD!! I did exchange a green pepper for the snow peas and it was amazing. And I completely messed up the breaded chicken. I see why you mentioned doing it just a few pieces at a time. I may back them instead in the future first to secure the breading. Mine fell off and so I had breading crumbs mixed in with my chicken. But it was beyond delicious all the same. Definitely something that will be in our regular rotation! Thank you SO much for your blog and all the wonderful recipes!!